Yes, CSS is definitely harder than table layout. Driving a tractor trailer is harder than riding a bicycle, but that does not make a bicycle a suitable replacement. The flaw in the analogy is simply that a heavy load will simply destroy the bicycle, while misapplying table markup will make fast downloads not as easy, will make maintaining and revamping the site more difficult, etc.
Yes, CSS is definitely harder than table layout. Driving a tractor trailer is harder than riding a bicycle, but that does not make a bicycle a suitable replacement. The flaw in the analogy is simply that a heavy load will simply destroy the bicycle, while misapplying table markup will make fast downloads not as easy, will make maintaining and revamping the site more difficult, etc.